Infosys CEO Shibulal turns a real estate tycoon

SD Shibulal, CEO and managing director of Infosys during the announcement of the annual financial result in Bangalore. UNI

SD Shibulal, the mild-mannered CEO of Infosys set to hand over the reins to Vishal Sikka on July 31 is officially retiring but in reality — make that realty — heading into a second career as a property tycoon.

“Post his retirement he would focus on real estate, primarily in the US. He will settle in the US,” said a person who knows Shibulal closely.

Shibulal, who has spent long years in the US for Infosys, will most likely settle down in Boston, where he has a plush home, but also has apartments in New York and elsewhere in the US, he said.

Some reports say Shibulal’s family office owns as many as 700 apartments in Seattle — the hometown for Microsoft and Amazon — but this could not be confirmed. His family wealth manager, N Senthil Kumar, was not immediately available for comment.

Informed sources say Shibulal, entered realty about some years ago with some coffee and tea estate purchases at Coorg and Ooty. The Tamara, a venture promoted by his daughter Shruti Manchanda, owns a luxury resort in Coorg, a 108-room hotel in Thiruvananthapuram and a 54-room hotel in Kodaikanal, besides several properties across Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

An executive who has worked with Shibulal said he holds a US passport and would have followed a common American practice of raising home loans.

“If you have $10 million, you can buy property worth $90 million and pay the rest from your rentals,” he said.